Fernes, Mosses and Liverworts (Ground cover for bonsai)

The ground cover of your bonsai is one of the important aesthetic elements that will improve the overall visual composition of your bonsai, as well as assist in providing soil chemical stability and retaining temperature and moisture for the bonsai tree’s surface roots. A good choice of ground cover vegetation coupled with other landscaping accessories will complement your bonsai tree greatly. (It is also one of the assessment factors in bonsai competitions.)

There are functions for everything in bonsai, and mosses and lichens, used as ground covers, are no exception. They, of course, look great, covering the soil surface with 'green velvet' and helping to retain water while holding the soil in the container. For people buying bonsai, the presence of moss is always a good sign. There are a great number of types of mosses and lichens and these can be mixed to provide a very effective result overall. When not used for 'conservation' purposes, they should be planted sparingly so that their effect is natural, and they do not prevent water from reaching the soil.

There is a particular method of mossing a potted bonsai that will produce a smooth mat of deep green, with none of the lumpy growth that can be typical of piecing bits of moss together. With a sharp knife, slice the moss from its growing place, taking as little soil as possible. Put this moss in a container lined with paper, and moisten it lightly (it should be moist, not wet). Remove most of the remaining soil from the moss using sharp scissors, pulling each little tuft away from the larger piece.

Prepare the surface soil in the bonsai pot by scratching it to roughen it up. With long handed tweezers, start inserting each tuft of moss close to, but not against, the trunk. Work out and away from the trunk until you have the look you want, then brush off most of the tufts. Sprinkle dry soil over the moss and press it down with a flat spatula or small trowel (even your hand if you are careful). Mist gently two or three times and the soil will settle down between the tufts.

As an alternative to collecting moss and going through this somewhat time consuming process, you can use dried moss. Gather it, then place it in the shade for a few days until it is completely dry. Put it through a fine strainer - a sieve will do - to crumble it. Mix the particles with some soil and spread it over the bonsai soil in the pot, making a thin, even layer. Press it down with a flat spatula or small trowel and gently mist continually until the soft green moss begins to grow. Some people just scrape soil off the bottom of the moss and put this on the soil of the bonsai, but takes a much longer time to root and is a delight for small birds when looking for worms if left exposed. Along with the growth of a healthy crop of moss often comes the appearance of a silver fungus around the soil line at the trunk of the tree. This is a sign of a healthily growing bonsai. The fungus develops as the moss takes hold, and it cannot be artificially implanted. In the heat of summer, moss may turn brown. It means the bonsai is getting the water it needs. As soon as cooler temperatures and higher humidity return, so will the 'green velvet'.

  

Ferns, Mosses and Liverworts are flowerless plants, reproducing by small, dust-like spores that are dispersed by the wind.  They are most abundant in damp habitats and most climates, as their thin leaves are easily damaged by desiccation.  Also, unlike flowering plants that produce pollen, fertilization is brought about by a male sperm, which needs a film of water in which to swim to the egg.

Moses and liverworts belong to a group of plants known as the Bryophyta . Their spores develop in a capsule, usually situated at the top of a stalk, or seta.  Mosses differ from liverworts in the structure of the spore capsule and the arrangement of their leaves.  About 65 different mosses and liverworts have been found growing on the bark of oaks, but very few ferns habitually grow on the trees themselves.

Ferns like bright diffused light and moist soil. Prune dead fronds from the plant immediately and keep humidity near the plant high for best results.

 

 

Polypodium vulgare: Ferns are common in oakwoods but the Common Polypody is the only species that regularly grows on trees themselves.  The spores develop in the microscopic sacs called sporangia, which are arranged in orange-brown clusters, called Sori, on the undersides of the fronds.

Lophocolea bidentata/heterophylla: The bidentata is a common leafy liverwort, found on decaying logs and among mosses on woodland banks. The heterophylla grows on the lower parts of trunks and branches, and its upper leaves are unlobed, unlike the bidentata.

Isothecium myosuroides:  This is a very common moss throughout Britain and central Europe, typically growing on the lower parts of tree trunks, on falled logs, and also on shaded rocks adn boulders.  It is a pleurocarpous moss, with spore capsules growing from the sides rather than the ends of the branches, and has a characteristic olive-green sheen.

Amblystegium serpens:  This is one of the smallest European species of pleurocarpous moss, with tiny leaves, and it is common on fallen logs and the lower branches of trees throughout Britain and central Europe. It produces capsules almost all year round.

Dicranoweisia cirrata:  This is the most common of the acrocarpous mosses, (mosses that have capsules at the tips of erect shoots), of tree trunks and lower branches.  It is usually fertile and is found throughout Europe, specially in areas with low levels of atmospheric pollution.

Ulota crispa:  This occurs in small, yellow-green tufts on twigs and small branches of hazel and elder, as well as young oaks.  Widespread throughout Europe, it is less common in the Midlands and southeast regions of Britain. 

Mnimum hornum: This is one of the most common European woodland mosses.  It grows on tree trunks, decaying logs, stream banks, and woodland floors, especially on acid soil throughout Britain and central Europe. It forms extensive dark-green patches.

Eurhynchium praelongun: A delicate species of pleurocarpous moss common in central Europe, it favours decaying stumps and logs.  It has fine, feathery branches and small leaves, and regular branching of shoots is characteristic.

Frullania dilatata:  A small, leafy liverwort, it can frequently be found growing on the lower branches and trunks of oaks and other trees.  The reddish-brown colour is characteristic of the Frullania species.  It is widespread in Britain and Europe, except in polluted areas and the extreme north.

Dicranum scoparium:  This is a common moss on fallen logs, woodland banks and the trunks and lower branches of trees.  It grows in bright green patches and the tips of its erect shoots all curve over in the same direction.

Hypnum cupressiforme:  A very common moss throughout Europe, this grows in mats on banks, trees and decaying logs, Similar to isothecium myosuroides, it grows higher up on trees and has more curves leaves.

Brachythecium rutabulum:  This is a robust species of pleurocarpous moss wit a characteristic yellow-green, glossy tinge to the branch tips.  It is common on tree trunks and decaying logs, especially where the soil is fertile.  It is abundant throughout central Europe.

There exists a multitude of suitable ground cover plants for growing bonsai, and those above are only a fraction of the plentiful choices available. It must be remembered that the ground cover should never be totally shaded and covered up with growth, as the soil needs the warmth from the sun to provide conducive conditions for root growth.

Thanks Richard Lewington.

Eucalyptus Globulus

Eucalyptus, blue gum, fever tree

Family: Myrtaceae (Zone 9)

The Australian eucalyptus is cultivated all over the world. Leaves from young trees are rounded and blue-green with a silvery bloom, those from mature trees are longer, pointed, tough and glossy green.

The first leaves are broad, without stalks, of a shining whitish-green and are opposite and horizontal, but after four or five years these are succeeded by others of a more ensiform or sword-shaped form, 6 to 12 inches long, bluish-green in hue, which are alternate and vertical, i.e. with the edges turned towards the sky and earth, an arrangement more suited to the climate and productive of peculiar effects of light and shade. The flowers are single or in clusters, almost stalkless.

It was Baron Ferdinand von Müller, the German botanist and explorer (from 1857 to 1873 Director of the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne), who made the qualities of this Eucalyptus known all over the world, and so led to its introduction into Europe, North and South Africa, California and the non-tropical districts of South America. He was the first to suggest that the perfume of the leaves resembling that of Cajaput oil, might be of use as a disinfectant in fever districts, a suggestion which has been justified by the results of the careful examination to which the Eucalyptus has been subjected since its employment in medicine. Some seeds, having been sent to France in 1857, were planted in Algiers and thrived exceedingly well. Trottoir, the botanical superintendent, found that the value of the fragrant antiseptic exhalations of the leaves in fever or marshy districts was far exceeded by the amazingly powerful drying action of the roots on the soil. Five years after planting the Eucalyptus, one of the most marshy and unhealthy districts of Algiers was converted into one of the healthiest and driest. As a result, the rapidly growing Eucalyptus trees are now largely cultivated in many temperate regions with the view of preventing malarial fevers. A noteworthy instance of this is the monastery of St. Paolo à la tre Fontana, situated in one of the most fever-stricken districts of the Roman Campagna. Since about 1870, when the tree was planted in its cloisters, it has become habitable throughout the year. To the remarkable drainage afforded by its roots is also ascribed the gradual disappearance of mosquitoes in the neighbourhood of plantations of this tree, as at Lake Fezara in Algeria.

In Sicily it is being extensively planted to combat malaria, on account of its property of absorbing large quantities of water from the soil. Recent investigations have shown that Sicilian Eucalyptus oil obtained from leaves during the flowering period can compete favourably with the Australian oil in regard to its industrial and therapeutic applications. Oil has also been distilled in Spain from the leaves of E. globulus, grown there.

In India, considerable plantations of E. globulus were made in 1863 in the Nilgiris at Ootacamund, but though a certain amount of oil is distilled there locally, under simple conditions, little attempt has hitherto been made to develop the industry on a commercial scale, Australia remaining the source of supply.

A great increase in Eucalyptus cultivation has recently taken place in Brazil as a result of a decree published in 1919 awarding premiums and free grants of land to planters of Eucalyptus and other trees of recognized value for essence cultivation.

There are a great number of species of Eucalyptus trees yielding essential oils, the foliage of some being more odorous than that of others, and the oils from the various species differing widely in character. It necessarily follows that the term Eucalyptus oil is meaningless from a scientific point of view unless the species from which it is derived is stated.

They contain a strongly scented oil in small translucent glands. The woody flower bud has a lid that is pushed off as the mass of stamens emerge. The bark frequently peels off in characteristic ragged strips.

It is used as a leave infusion (antiseptic, anorexigenic), essential oil (antiseptic, wound healing, expectorant).

The British Pharmacopoeia describes Eucalyptus Oil as the oil distilled from the fresh leaves of E. globulus and other species.The oils may be roughly divided into three classes of commercial importance: 

• the medicinal oils, which contain substantial amounts of eucalyptol (also known as cineol) 
• the industrial oils, containing terpenes, which are used for flotation purposes in mining operations 
• the aromatic oils, such as E. citriodora, which are characterized by their aroma. 

The British Pharmacopoeia requires Eucalyptus Oil to contain not less than 55 per cent, by volume, of Eucalyptol, to have a specific gravity 0.910 to 0.930 and optical rotation -10 degrees to 10 degrees. The official method for the determination of the Eucalptol depends on the conversion of this body into a crystalline phosphate, but numerous other methods have been suggested 

The medicinal Eucalyptus Oil is probably the most powerful antiseptic of its class, especially when it is old, as ozone is formed in it on exposure to the air. It has decided disinfectant action, destroying the lower forms of life. Internally, it has the typical actions of a volatile oil in a marked degree.

Eucalyptus Oil is used as a stimulant and antiseptic gargle. Locally applied, it impairs sensibility. It increases cardiac action.

The oil is a powerful antiseptic and disinfectant. Rub in onto the chest for bronchitis and chest complaints, and sprinkle on the pillow to soothe coughs, colds and asthma. Several drops in warm water make a gargle for sore throats. To clear the nose and bronchial tubes, boil 25g (1 oz) fresh leaves in one liter (2 1/4 pints) water, then inhale the steam with a towel over your head.The bark produces a beige dye and when boiled for about 2 hours, the fresh leaves give a beautiful red.

When to use it? external use : antiseptic for cuts, burns, leucorrhea, respiratory infections (inhalation)

internal use : respiratory infections: sinus infection, bronchitis, common cold or flu with associated bronchitis, urinary infections

When not to use it? When you have allergy to eucalytus, possible bronchospasm with essential oil. all alkaloid are dangerous drugs.intoxication lead to hallucinations, dementia, possible death.

In veterinary practice, Eucalyptus Oil is administered to horses in influenza, to dogs in distemper, to all animals in septicaemia. It is also used for parasitic skin affections.

Bulbs species that grow well in the Deep South (Part 3)

Narcissus can be well adapted or very picky, depending on the kind.  There are many types, derived from several original species, native to mountainous regions of such places as the Caucasus.  Enthusiasts have divided them into strict categories, based on floral form and habit, but not on adaptability.  You frequently see clumps of yellow jonquils still growing on old home sites; the houses and people are long gone but jonquils remain.  Where the land starts to rise from the coastal plain, you will find naturalized trumpet daffodils, such as the variety King Alfred.  Few daffodils do well south of that line.  Some varieties that do are Ice Follies, Fortune, Thalia (white), Tete-a Tete (dwarf and yellow), February Godl, and Baby Moon, whch has branched flower stems with one inch yellow flowers.   Some of the old white narcissus that bloom in midwinter in the coastal south have been passed along for generations.  Paper-white narcissus, often forced during winter, need no chilling period and if they are properly handled during shipping, are almost certain to bloom the first season from dry bulbs.  After bloom these may be planted into the garden and, after a year to make new leaves and initiate new flowers, can repeat for years. 

A longevity and performance study done at LSU identified several small-flowered bulbs that perform well and persist in south Louisiana and in other areas of the coastal South.  These include Broiaea Laxa, which wens up striking blue flower clusters on stems about twelve inches tall before leaves grow in late spring.  Scilla campanulata, sometimes called Canterbury bells, produces stems about a foot tall with clusters of one-inch, nodding, bell-like flowers (they can be blue, white or pink).

Triteleia uniflora sends up leaves in early winter, then one-inch star-shaped flowers on six-inch stems in early spring.  These increase from offsets as well as seeds, and may invade the lawn near beds where they grow.  Most people find this desirable, especially as it is too early to mow the grass.  Later on, just mow over them.

One invader that can be troublesome is star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum).  this grows about eight inches tall, with leaves emerging in early winter, and flwers in spring with clusters of white blooms with dark centers.  Charming as they are, they produce huge numbers of offsets that spread throughout the bed, defying efforts to remove them.

Rain lillies, species of Habranthus and Zephyranthes can border beds without becoming a nuisance.  These got the common name from their habit of respondingto rains, especially after dry spells, with a profusion of flowers.  Some bloom as early as April in the humid South-some as late as September.  Most are native to Mexico or to Central or South America-a few are native to the Gulf crescent from south Florida through coastal Texas.  Severe cold limits the range of most.  Flowers are usually from one to three inches across, lilylike on stems up to 18inch tall.  Colors range from white and yellow through rose and pink; apricots and pure reds are known.
Cannnas used to be more popular back in the old days, because they take up a lot of space.  There is a leaf roller insect that turns up wherever cannas are grown.  This little critter presents a constant challenge to anyone who tries to keep cannas' foliage looking good.

Callas are old-fashioned plants that have been dramatically improved by breeders in recent years.  We all thought that callas were like lillies as the tall, white zantedeschia aethipica with 3 foot stems.  We also thought of them as plants for funerals, but the newr forms and species, especially Z. elliotiana (yellow) and Z. rehmannii (red) have some really "hot" colors and smaller plants, they would look out of place at a funeral.  You can now choose from colors such as coral, pink, burgundy or yellow-some with attractive white spotted leaves.  All of these will be damaged by hard freezes, but mulching will protect them into the mid-twenties, or they can be lifted and stored over colder periods.

We almost forgot to mention Leucojum aestivum, the snowflake.  This small spring-flowering bulb can substitute for lily-of-the valley (convallaria), which does not do well in hot weather.  


Snowflake makes stems about a foot tall with clusters of nodding, bell-like blooms, which are white with a distinctive green dot at the ends of the floral segments.  

Thanks to Ed and Leon

Classification of Orchids

Every system of classification should reflect a natural order, but in the case of orchids, the situation is unbelievably complicated.
So, How is it possible, by observing and studying the 25000 (yes you read well, 25 thousand) species of orchids that exist worldwide, to form any idea as to how they have evolved and become differentiated in the course of time?
What criteria can be used to group them in such a way as to take into account their potential genetic affinities?
Little wonder that botanists have come up against such a wealth of complex problems in their attempts to formulate a coherent classification.
The task of the taxonomists, the specialists in classification, is all the more difficult because there are extremely few orchid fossils, since for various reasons these plants are highly unsuited to fossil formation. The existence of such fossils would, needles to say, have been invaluable for establishing a so called natural classification, based on archaic forms that an understanding of the genetic affinities of modern forms, Unfortunately, the most ancient orchid fossil dates back no more than 12 million years, all too little in relation to present day notions as to the origins of the species, but too much in the context of ideas prevailing 20-30 years ago.
Orchids in fact, are plants which are still in an active phase of evolution, as indicated by a multitude of species, that are often capable of being hybridized. This might suggest that it is an extremely young family which appeared on  Earth only about 2 million years ago.
This, presents a paradox that must lead us to reconsider many of our conceptions relating to the organization of living things.
In fact, orchids are a very ancient and at the same time, evolutive family. As a result, it is the most diversified of all families of flowering plants.
After a good deal of trial and error, it ow transpires that the most reliable cirteria, for example which best reveal the relationship between species and genera, are the structural features of the sexual organs (anthers and pollinia) and hence, in the case of orchids, the structure of the column, the pollinia, the viscidium and the stigma. Linnaeus, in the early 1800's deserves credit for having underlined the merit of this method of classification.
More recently, the examination of embryonic forms has emerged as an excellent taxonomic criterion (Yvonne Veyret), in accord with the ideas of other authors who have based their classification on macroscopic criteria.
However, one of the most decisive criteria is still the study of chromosomes, particularly their numbers.

Many others criteria may also be utilized as a possible reference for classification, such as the form, function or structure of this or that vegetative or floral organ. But their value is, in most cases, merely complementary. It has often happened, indeed, that the same characteristic will have appeared at different moments in the evolution of different subfamilies or distinct tribes.
This seems to be the case of epihytism but also of numerous other features.
Although, to some, orchid classification may seem a fruitless exercise, the purely intellectual pursuit of grouping plants with common origins and characteristics is in itself rewarding, while for growers the value is immense.  Close relationship points to the existence of close inherited genetic traits and thus important possibilities for hybridization. Moreover, although there are many exceptions, close relationship of them implies common cultural needs.




Dressler's Classification:


Among the principal authoritites in the classifcation fo orchids over the years are John Lindley (1860), Rudolf Schlechter (1926), Robert Dressler (1974) and Peter Hunt (1978). Although all classifications proposed to this day remain the subject of debate and controversy, the one referred to most frequently is that of Robert Dressler.
His method of classification distinguises the following categories of groups or subsidediary groups (taxons):

• Subfamilies (total of 6)
• Tribes
• Subtribes
• Genera
• Species
• Varieties

Much controversy has surrounded this classification and different authors have challenged it on particular points:

• Should one subfamily or part of the subfamily be included in another? Or should 2 subfamilies be grouped to make a third one? (thus, Garay's classification takes a part of the Orchidoideae, a part of the Epidendroideae and the Spiranthoideae to make up the single subfamily Nettioideae
• Should 2 or 3 closely related genera be combined in a single one? (as it happens with Bulbophyllum and Cirrhopetallum)
• Should a variety become a distinct species?
• Should a genus be broken up?

These dscussions are often superficial, not to say irritatin, because they sometimes give impression that, in nature, such precise limitationds and catergories do not exist. But they do have the merit, in many instances, of furthering knowledge of orchids whilst enabling botanists themselves to establish their own rudiments of classification according to their personal preconceived ideas; broadly speaking, they go for lumping or splitting.

It is now generally believed that the orchids became differentiated about 120 million years ago, deriving from the ancestral order Liliales. Of these the Cypripedioideae and above all, the Apostasioideae (an archaic form of orchid) whould seem to be closely related, at least with regard of the structure of the column (2 fertile staments in the Cypripedioideae and 3 in the Apostaisioideae).
According to Dressler, there are 4 subfamilies of orchids characterized by the presence of one fertile stamen, with pollen clustered in masses of pollinia; the structure of the pollinia and of the column distinguishes between these subfamilies:

• Orchidoideae: One anther joined to the column, pollinia divided into packets and linked to a viscidium. These plants are almost exclusively terrestrial.
• Spiranthoideae: The stamen is affixed to the rear of the column; the pollinia are soft and friable; the viscidium is anterior. These plants are also almost always terrestrial.
• Epidendroideae: the stamen is protected by an easily lifted operculum; the pollinia are waxy in texture, with an adherent part but no viscidiu. These plants are either epiphytic or terrestrial.
• Vandoideae: the stamens are protected by an operculum, the pollinia are attached to one or two hard viscidia. These plants are almost exclusively epiphytes.

By taking into account many other features of both, the plant and flower apparatus, the 4 subfamilies are divided into 21 tribes:

• Subfamily Spiranthoideae: 

Subfamily Epidendroideae:

1. tribe Erythrodeae
2. tribe Cranichideae

• Subfamily Orchidoideae:

1. tribe Neottieae
2. tribe Diurideae
3. tribe Orchideae
4. tribe Diseae

• Anomalous tribes

1. tribe Triphoreae
2. tribe Wullschlaegeliae

• Subfamily Epidendroideae:

1. tribe Vanilleae
2. tribe Gastrodieae

• Tribe Epipogiaeae

1. tribe Arethuseae
2. tribe Coelogyneae
3. tribe Malaxideae
4. tribe Cryptarrheneae
5. tribe Calypsoeae
6. tribe Epidendreae

• Subfamily Vandoideae:

1. tribe Polystachyeae
2. tribe Vandeae
3. tribe Maxillarieae
4. tribe Cymbidieae

Enough for today right? too much information in only one post...

Thanks to Gerald Leroy-Terquem & Jean Parisot for this wonderful learning material.